There are many conventional laundry additives available commercially which are introduced to laundry preferably during a rinse cycle of an automatic clothes washing machine, either because of the incompatability of the laundry additive with washing agents generally present in the wash cycle, or because of the increased efficiency of introducing the laundry additive during the rinse cycle as opposed to the wash or spin cycle of an automatic washing machine. With the ever-growing numbers and types of laundry additives available for use in washing clothes, a need has arisen for an effective device to most effectively automatically dispense the laundry additives at the proper interval of a rinse cycle of an automatic clothes washing machine. Indeed, a need has also arisen to provide such a device that will dispense the laundry additive in a clean, effective and simple manner, thereby obviating the difficulties commonly associated with the conventional, more complicated devices that are presently available.
One such type of laundry additive dispenser or pouch for automatically introducing a laundry additive into rinse water in automatic clothes washers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,131, dated May 31, 1977. The problem generally attributable to the dispenser or pouch disclosed in the aforementioned patent is that it is not quite as simple in construction as it might otherwise be, nor as commercially economical to produce on a large scale as it might otherwise be. It has a rupturable fold region which adds to its complexity and cost to produce. It is of the variety, however, which can be mounted upon the central upright post of the agitator in a washer, and is adapted to rupture at its prescribed folded region when subjected to the centrifugal force of a rinse cycle in the washer to release its contents. In short, its manner of function is something of the general principle upon which the present invention is grounded, absent, however, in one regard, the fold region.